Omnipotence
Omnipotence or being “all-powerful” is an expression of God’s volitional attributes. As a personal being, God has volition – he has will. Here is a possible definition of omnipotence that is usable. This can get very complicated when reading philosophical literature about this. But here is a simple way of putting it. God can bring about any state of affairs which is logically possible for anyone to bring about in that situation. If anyone in that situation would be capable of bringing about that state of affairs then God must be capable of bringing about that state of affairs. Scriptural Data The testimony of Scripture is that God is almighty and can do all things, which is pretty powerful scriptural warrant for saying that God is omnipotent. Some of the scriptural data that is pertinent to the doctrine of God’s omnipotence or his being all-powerful can be looked at. God is Almighty Genesis 17:1 – this is the appearance of God to Abram – “When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless’.” The word there in the Hebrew translated as “God Almighty” is the familiar expression “El Shaddai.” God reveals himself to Abram as El Shaddai – God Almighty. This same name for God carries through the Bible right to the last book of the New Testament, Revelation 19:6, when there is the marriage supper of the Lamb: “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals, crying, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.’” God is called “Almighty” in Scripture. The almighty power of God in Scripture is most manifested in the act of creation. God creates the world out of nothing. He does not need any material substratum (any matter or energy) out of which to create the world. He creates the matter and energy as well as the things that are constituted by matter and energy. The doctrine of creation out of nothing is the most powerful or visual display of God’s omnipotence in the Scriptures. Genesis 1:1 begins with the words, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” In the beginning God created the universe. Psalm 33:9 is a psalm that extols God’s power in creation. It says, “For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood forth.” The creation simply comes into being at the verbal command of the Lord. His almighty word brings the universe into existence. In Romans 4:17, Paul uses a striking phrase to characterize this creation out of nothing. In the latter part of that verse he speaks of Abraham’s being in the presence of God in whom he believed and then this phrase: “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.” Here the two mighty acts of God – creation and the resurrection – are mentioned as manifestations of his power. God is the one who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. He calls these things into being even though they do not exist. This is truly creation from nothing. He constitutes these things in being. God Can Do All Things – or God Can Do Anything There are a number of scriptural passages that state this explicitly. Genesis 18:14 to begin with. This is the promise to Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child in their old age which provokes laughter on Sarah’s part. But in verse 14 of Genesis 18, the Lord says, “Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you in the spring and Sarah shall have a son.” Notice the question there - “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” This question is purely a rhetorical question. The answer is clearly no, nothing is too hard for the Lord. In Jeremiah 32:17 there is a similar question and answer. The question actually appears in verses 26 and 27 of Jeremiah 32: “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ‘Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too hard for me?’” Unless you have any doubt about the answer to that question, look at verse 17: “Ah Lord GOD! It is thou who hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for thee.” The Scriptures say that God can do anything. There is nothing that is too hard for God to do. Job 42:1-2 is the final scene in the book of Job where Job realizes God’s incomprehensible greatness and his inability to fathom the power of God. In verse 1 of chapter 42, “Then Job answered the LORD: ‘I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted.’” Here Job confesses that God can do all things. This is not a doctrine confined to the Old Testament. It is repeated in the New Testament by Jesus himself. In Matthew 19:26, Jesus is speaking to his disciples. “Jesus looked to them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’” Also in Mark 14:36 Jesus is praying in the garden of Gethsemane, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.” So Jesus also affirms that God can do all things. Paradoxes The attribute of omnipotence means being all-powerful. There is an immediate confrontation with the paradoxes of omnipotence because although the Scriptures say that God can do all things it seems intuitively obvious that there are certain things that God cannot do. These paradoxes of omnipotence seem to impose limits upon God’s power. How then should people understand God’s omnipotence? The answer is that things are not really “things” at all that God is incapable of doing. These represent purely logical limits on God’s power. Even his inability to actualize a logically possible world is a logical limit because it is logically impossible to make creatures freely do something. The source of the limitation is purely logic, and logic is based in the nature of God himself. It is a reflection of his own essence and nature that God acts in logically consistent ways. No one could bring about the state of affairs of God’s acting contrary to his own nature. That is simply logically impossible. So no one has that power. Similarly, nobody would have the power to bring it about that a square circle exists or that a married bachelor exists. No one could bring about a state of affairs in which there is a stone too heavy for God to lift, for example. This is simply a logically incoherent state of affairs. Nobody could bring that about. Or no one in God’s situation could bring about these worlds that are logically possible in themselves but which are infeasible because of the subjunctive conditionals that happen to be true. Anybody in that situation will be confronted with the same limitations – the same counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. Can God Act Contrary To His Own Nature? If God has certain essential properties then how could God possibly act in a way that would be contrary to his own essence or nature? For example, could God create another god and then worship it? That seems absolutely inconceivable. God cannot be created so God could not create another God. It would be idolatrous and blasphemous for him to worship some other god. Or, could God commit adultery? Again this seems absurd to think that God could act in such a way that would be contrary to his moral character. Christian theologians typically do not say that God can act contrary to his own nature. God always acts in a way that is consistent with his own nature. He cannot act contrary to his nature. Logical Impossibilities Can God do something that is logically impossible? For example, could God have made it true that Jesus both came and died on the cross and that he did not come and die on the cross? These are logical contradictions. Could he make a logical contradiction come true? Could God make a round square, for example? Again, Christian theologians almost universally would say that God’s being all-powerful does not mean that he can do things that are logically impossible. Though there have been exceptions – for example, the great philosopher Rene Descartes (who was a committed Christian philosopher) believed that God could do logically impossibilities and that the laws of logical and mathematics depend upon God’s will. God has willed the law of contradiction to be true, and he has willed certain other logically necessary truths. So ultimately these sorts of logical necessities are not rooted in God’s nature for Descartes but in his will. But Descartes stands here as a real outlier, a real maverick. By far and away it is virtually universal among Christian thinkers that to say God is omnipotent does not mean that he can do logical impossibilities. These are not things at all. They are just contradictory combinations of words. There is no such “thing” as a round square that God is incapable of making. These are just logical contradictions verbally and therefore are not things that God’s power needs to encompass. Unactualizable Logical Possibilities Are there things that are logically possible in themselves but they are incapable of being realized in reality? Incapable of being actualized (unactualizable). For example, it seems logically possible that people could always choose to do the right things – that they would never sin. That would mean that there is a logically possible world which includes God in which people never sin but always freely do the right thing. This would not be a robot world. It is not a marionette world where God is pulling the puppet strings and making these people always choose the right thing. It is just that in any moral situation in which a person finds themselves they have the ability to choose to do good or not to do good. They have the ability to choose evil or good, and they are not logically forced to do the wrong thing. It is logically possible for them to do the right thing. What if everybody always did the right thing? What if everybody always simply freely chose to obey God? Then people would have a world in which there would be no sin even though there is human freedom. So there must be a logically possible world like that. But does that mean that therefore God is capable of creating such a world? That does not follow because it may be that given human freedom if God were to try to actualize such a world the people would go wrong and would sin and therefore this world would not result. You can think of it in this way. It is not simply up to God which world becomes actual. If people have freedom then they co-actualize the world along with God. If God gives them freedom then he does not determine what they choose. He stands back so to speak and lets them make their choices in those moral situations in which they find themselves. What that means is that there are logically possible worlds that are perfectly consistent in and of themselves but which God is incapable of creating. He is incapable of actualizing them. Why? The reason would be because the wrong subjunctive conditionals are true. It is logically possible that if Peter were in these certain circumstances he would not deny Christ. He would faithfully confess Christ. That is possible. But nevertheless it may be the case that if Peter were in these circumstances he would freely deny Christ three times. So that logically possible world is not available to God to actualize. It is infeasible for him to actualize even though it is logically possible. This is very intimately related to the question of middle knowledge. On middle knowledge there is a very significant distinction between worlds which are possible and worlds which are feasible for God to actualize. It may be that there is a whole range of worlds that are logically possible – like a sinless world – but which God is incapable of creating because the creatures would in fact go wrong. Therefore, God (even though he is omnipotent) is not necessarily capable of actualizing just any logically possible state of affairs. Practical Application Here are three practical applications the attribute of divine omnipotence has to people’s lives. Humans are Walking Sticks of Dynamites The same power that brought the universe into being out of nothing and that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in people to do God’s will. 2 Corinthians 4:6-10 can be looked at for Paul’s affirmation of this truth. Paul says, For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” God who spoke the universe into being in Genesis 1 who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels frail, weak, mortal bodies, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Human bodies are frail, mortal, and wasting away. Yet, while death is at work in these mortal bodies there is the powerful transcendent life of God that is resonant there and is working through Christians. It gives them strength to endure every affliction and trial such as Paul describes. Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, Ephesians 1:19-21, shows there that Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians that they might know What is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. Just as in 2 Corinthians, Paul says it is the God who spoke the world into being whose transcendent power is in work in Christians. Here in Ephesians Paul says it is the immeasurable greatness of the power of him who raised Jesus from the dead that is now at work in Christians. Over at Ephesians 3:20-21, Paul gives this wonderful doxology: Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. Humans limit God through their reduced vision of what he can do in their lives. Paul says the power of God at work within people is able to do far more abundantly than all that they ask or think. People need to ask and think for greater things from God – for him to do great works through them and not to limit him because of their limited vision of what he can do through his power within them. Even though humans themselves may be weak and impotent, Christ living in them gives them tremendous power. The interesting contrast between John 15:5 and Philippians 4:13 can be looked st. John 15:5 is Jesus’ word or parable about the vine and the branches. In John 15:5 Jesus says, “He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” That shows how much power Christians have. Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing” of any spiritual significance. Yet, turning over to Philippians 4:13, Paul affirms this: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” What a wonderful paradox that is. Apart from Christ Christians can do nothing, but they can do all things through him who strengthens them. So it is through that abiding power of Christ within Christians that they can accomplish God’s will for their lives. The remarkable thing about this is that God’s power works through human weakness, not just simply in spite of it. Paul suffered from some sort of debilitating chronic disease or disability that hindered him in his travels and ministries. He speaks about this in 2 Corinthians 12:8-10, Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me wanted to be healed of this physical condition; but he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong. Is that not a remarkable affirmation on Paul’s part? He rejoices in his weakness because in his weakness the power of God is made all the more manifest. The power of God is at work within Christians, and that must not be underestimated. When they are weak, when they go through afflictions and hard times, those are the times when that power can be most manifest in their lives Nothing Can Defeat God’s Purposes In Ephesians 1:11 Paul says this: “In him Christ, according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will,” and the sentence then continues. That phrase “him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will” – all the will of God – will be done. It will be accomplished, and nothing is going to be able to defeat God’s purposes. If God wants something for someone, that person will get it. If he wants someone to accomplish something then as they trust in him and rely upon his power they will accomplish it. This can be seen, for example, in the life of a biblical character like Joseph. God had a plan for Joseph, did he not? That he would save his family from famine by rising to be the right-hand man of Pharaoh when the famine hit Palestine. Even beyond that, God’s plan to have Israel be in Egypt for those four hundred years until the land of Canaan was ripe for judgment and it was time for God to bring Israel out of Egypt into Canaan. God’s purpose would be accomplished. But along the way, disasters befell Joseph. Being sold to a caravan of traders. Being betrayed by Potiphar’s wife on false charges. Thrown into prison. It seemed like nothing was going right for Joseph at times; that God’s plan was not being accomplished. But all of it fit in to God’s ultimate providential purposes for Joseph despite how seemingly disastrous it may have seemed. As people trust in him, walk with him, and rely upon his power, they can have confidence that God’s purposes for their lives will be accomplished. Here a note of caution is necessary because God’s will for someone’s life can include failure. When it is said “nothing will defeat God’s purposes” that does not mean a person is going to be a success in everything they undertake. In a spiritual sense Christians can be a success, but in a worldly sense God may lead them into failure. The will for some Christians’ lives is to suffer persecution and die in Iraq or in Syria under horrible conditions. For others it may be to lose a job or business position, or to be a failure as a pastor in a church. God’s will for a life can include failure because he has things to teach people through failure that they would never learn through success. His long-range purposes may be accomplished through bringing failure and defeat and suffering into someone’s life. But this is all under the providential plan and guidance of an omnipotent and sovereign God. This is the central failing of the health and wealth gospel which says that if one just believes God that God is going to give them great success (in a worldly sense) in this life. That is a false gospel that is not promised biblically and it certainly is not true when looking at Christians around the world, many of whom are suffering terribly and die in horrible conditions because of their faithfulness to Christ. But what people can trust God for is that as an omnipotent provident governor of the world his providential purposes will not be thwarted. Therefore when humans go through these difficult times of affliction and failure and defeat they go through them in the confidence that God is still on the throne and that his purposes will be done. God is Adequate to All Needs Christians serve an omnipotent God. He is adequate to all of their needs. There is no prayer too hard, no need too great, no temptation too strong, no misery too deep but that God is not adequate to meet their needs in that situation. Christians need to remind themselves as they go through life that they serve an omnipotent God who, through the indwelling power of Christ works within them and through them to accomplish his will. Category:Doctrine of God Category:Personal Attributes